Folding container



Nov. 28, 1961 M. H. STARK FOLDING CONTAINER 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 5, 1958 R m M W Nov. 28, 1961 M. H. STARK 3,010,637

FOLDING CONTAINER Filed Aug. 5, 1958 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TOR.

Nov. 28, 1961 M. H. STARK 3,010,637

FOLDING CONTAINER Filed Aug. 5, 1958 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 E@ f4 fg ./5

f5 8 Y ze IT-" ff e INVENToR. w27/N A( 5 7' 14R/4 United States Patent O 3,010,637 FOLDING CONTAINER Martin Henry Stark, V223 N. Porter, Saginaw, Mich. Filed Aug. 5, 1958, Ser. No. 753,322 4 Claims. (Cl. 229-37) This invention relates to containers of the lgeneral types referred to as cartons, cans, boxes, tubes, or drums and particularly to improvements in such containers ofV rthe general type shown in U.S. Patent No. 459,543.

Objects of the invention are, singly and collectively, to provide an improved container wherein:

(l) 'No openings are formed atl the container corners such as might permit leakage or escape of liquid, powder of granular material from within the container;

(2) One or more reinforcing sheets may be economically provided for the body section of the container so as to provide for increased strength;

(3) One or more fluid impervious sheets may be incorporatedinto the'container, to provide a container having a high degree of resistance to the passage of tluids 2 through the container walls;

(4) The container end walls and container side walls are formed from an integral flat blank of foldable material of either single or multiple ply construction as desired; thereby reducing fabrication costs and permitting large numbers of container blanks to be economically shipped in a flat condition requiring shipping space. In certain instances, as for example, in theiield of heavy duty containers, the end walls may be further reinforced by Ithe provision of 'a cap:element which may be secured thereto as desired.

Other objects of this invention will appear iny the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this speciiication wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.l Y

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a container blank utilized in one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective rview of a partially-closed container constructed from the FIG. l blank.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the FIG. 2 container when fully closed. FIG. 4 is a view showing one end of the FIG. 2 container in a partially closed state;

FIG. 5 is a view at right angles to FIG. 4 but taken at a further stage in the end-closing operation.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 but taken after complete closing of the container end.

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 5 by illustrating an alternative method of closing the container end.

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 6 but illustrating the container end construction after being closed by the method of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a view taken in the direction of arrow 9 in FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a view similar to FIG. 8 but illustrating another method of closing the container end.

FIG. 1l is a view taken in the direction of arrow 11 in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but of a second embodiment of a container blank constructed according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a partially-closed container constructed from the FIG. 12 blank.

FIGS. 14 and 15 are end and side views of a perforated-easy opener container constructed according to the present invention.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrange- Vce mentk of parts illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it 'is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

In the drawings there is shown a container blank sheet of papenboard or other fibrous material 1 having four parallel fold marks 2, 3, 4, and 5 which serve to define tube-forming areas 6, 7, 8,V 9, and 10; Fold marks 11 and 12 extend at 'right angles across fold marks 2, 3, 4,- and 5 so as to define a plurality of rectangular areas 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 at each end of the blank. A ap'18 extends from the outer end of each area 13, and a flap 50 extends from the outer end of each -area 15.

Each of areas 14 and 16'are provided with intersecting diagonal -fold marks 19,'- whereby to form vfour triangular sections 24,25, 26, and 27 in each of the respective areas. There are also formed in each of areas 14 and 16 a plurality of fold 'marks 20 -which radiate from -adjacent juncture points 21 outwardly across an outer portion of one of the foldvmarks 19. Another fold' mark 23 extends from the intersection point 22`of the diagonal folds 19 directly away. from the corresponding tube-forming area 7 or 9.

Formation of a containerl from the FIG. 1 blankvmay be accomplished by first bending sheet 1 along fold marks 2, 3, 4, and 5, and adhesively securingrthe outer edges of areas 10 and 17 to the outer edges of areas 6 and i13 so as to form the 'open-ended tube shown in FIG. 2.

Thereafter wall area 13 is xforced inwardly to a position at right vangles to the tube axis with ap 18 positioned vilatwise against the inner surface of wall area 15. During this forcing movement of wall area 13'wall Iareas 14-V and 16 first buckle outwardly and then triangular sections 24 and 25 turn inside of sections 26 and 27 so as to produce rthe article coniiguration shown vin FIG. 4. The initial outward buckling of wall areas 14 and 16 occurs around lines 12 Vand 23, it being understood that lines 23 allow the Vhalf portions of section 25 to move toward each other so as to permit the outward buckling action. The inside turning of section 24 occurs around portion 30 of line 19; and the inside turning of section 25 occurs around line23-and portion 31 of line 19. During this inside turning of Vsection 25V said section tends to bend around lines 20; these lines therefore serve to facilitate this bending action and prevent inadvertent breaking or irregular creasing of said section.

The FIG. 4 article is further acted upon by the application of inward pressure against portion 32 of line 19 in the direction of arrows 33. This application of pressure causes the outer surfaces of sections 26 and 27 to bend toward one another so as to bring wall area 15 and flap 18 toward wall area 13, with section 24 `through 27 taking overlapping positions between flap 18 and areas 13 and 17.

The iinal step in the container-forming operation is the bringing of ap '50 down onto the outer surface of wall area 6 as shown in FIG. 6. Flap 50 and any or all of sections 13 through 18 may be provided with adhesive to aid in securing the end closure components in their FIG. 6 positions.

Instead of forcing sections 24 through 27 inwardly between wall area 13 and ap 18 as illustrated in FIG. 5, sections 24 through 27 may be forced outwardly by the application of pressure in the arrow 34 direction as illustrated in FIG. 7. Thereafter the overlapping triangular sections may be adhesively secured to walls 7 and 9 as illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9, or the triangular sections may be adhesively secured to wall 15 as illustrated in FIGS. l0 and ll.

It Will be noted that corners 35, 36, 37, and 38 of the completed container are devoid of any openings or slots such as might permit leakage or `escape of liquid, pow dered, or granular material from within the container. This elimination of openingsresults from the fact that end areas 13 through 17 are contiguous and integral with one Y another, there being no slots or cuts between adjacent ones of the end areas. The elimination of openings feature cooperates with ap 18 to provide a sealed container structure which is particularly adapted for holding liquid, powdered Yor granular materials in a leak proof manner.

In order to prevent passage or tluid through the container Vwalls the inner and/or outer surfaces of the container walls may be provided with a wax coating; alternately one or more sheets of fluid-impervious material such as Sar-an, Pliollrn or` polyethylene may -be applied to the inner surface of sheet 1 while the sheetv is in the FIG. l flat condition for the same purpose. Also, in order to reinforce and strengthen the container Walls one or more sheets 51 and ,'52 of paperboard or similar material may be applied on the inner surfaces of wall areas 6 through 9 lwhile the FIG. 1 sheet is inthe iiat condition. The reinforcing sheets should preferably not extend over wall areas 13 through 17 because the presence `of reinforcing sheets on these areas. would prevent easy bending of the triangular sections in the manner shown in FIGS. 4 through 1l. Y

The embodiment shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 is 'milar in many respects to the FIG. 1 embodiment, and vsimilar reference numerals are employed wherever applicable. In the FIG. 12 embodiment flaps 18 are provided with triangular tabs V53. When wall sections 13 and 18 are moved to the FIG. 13 position tabs 53 take positions along escape or sifting of tine, powdery materials. i Tabs 53 may Abe omitted' when the containers are constructed insmall sizes or whenthe containers are not required to contain Y line, powdery material.

The FIGS. l2 andg13 vcontainer may have its triangular Y sections 24 through 27 turned inside of end area 1'5 as in VFIG'. 6 or outside of end area 15 as in FIGS. 8 and 1y1.

ItV iscontemplated that containers of the present invention ymay Vbe provided with easy opener features,ras for example the series of perforations 54 and 55 shown in the FIG. 13 container'body. These perforations permit section '56 of the container body to be manually torn away from the remaining body portions of the container so as to break the container into two sections for easy access to the container contents.

When the container is constructed with the triangular sections 24 through 27 on the outsidel of the container body sidewalls 7 and 9 (as in FIGS. Sand 9) the easy opener perforations may be formed in the triangular sections and container end Wall areas as shown in FIGS. 14 and 15 at 57 and 58. Opening of the container can be easily effected by manualraising of the triangular sections and tearing across the container end wall in directions parallel to walls 6 and 8.

I claim:

1. A container blank comprising a sheet of material devoid of slots and divided vby fold marks into four contiguous, laligned tube-forming areas, and four contiguous, aligned end-forming areas Vintegral with corresponding ends of the tube-forming areas; alternate ones of the endforming areas being divided by two diagonal intersecting fold marks into four triangular areas; at leastV one fold mark extending from the juncture point between two of the tube-forming tareas and two of the end-forming areas toward a portion of a diagonal fold mark outside of the diagonal fold mark' intersection point; and a fold mark extending from the diagonal fold mark intersection point directly away from the corresponding tube-forming area.

y2. The combination of Yclaim land yfurther vincluding a iiap extended integrally from an edge of an end-forming area directly opposite the corresponding Vtube-forming area. Y.

3. The combination of claim 2 and further including triangular'. tabs extending integrally from lateral edges of the flap. f Y

4. The combination of claim l and furtherincluding aps extending integrally from the outerredges of those fold marks.

end-forming areas which are not Yprovidedwithdiagonal References CitedA in vtheiile of this pra-tentV UNITED STATES PATENTS France June 18,V 

